


Refuge in Normalcy

by viridiansky



Category: Persona 4, 斉木楠雄のΨ難 | Saiki Kusuo no Sai-nan | The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.
Genre: Alternate Universe - Character Swap, Comedy, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Drama, Gen, Humor, Mystery, Plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-04 06:26:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10985247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viridiansky/pseuds/viridiansky
Summary: Saiki Kusuo just wants to have a normal life. He doesn't care about these 'Persona' powers or whatever he sees everyone else using - it's not like he needs some weird power like that to take care of these 'shadow' things. And murders? That's a job for the police.Unfortunately for him, his frie- that is, classmates won't let that stand.





	1. The Fool...?

Saiki stares out the window of his train. He wishes he could’ve just teleported to Inaba, but that would’ve raised too many questions.

His grandparents didn’t know about his psychic powers – they would be waiting at the train station for him, and he wasn’t sure if there was anywhere he could teleport safely around there. Troublesome to deal with as always…

Thankfully, there weren’t that many people on the train so the trip wasn’t too painful, despite its length. He preferred it to trying to go anywhere in Tokyo during rush hour.

It might be nice staying in a small town for the next year. It would be quieter, at least. And unlike most people, he had no issues with the lack of goods and services in the countryside. Saiki would just teleport back to Tokyo or wherever he wanted if he craved some decent coffee jelly.

Still, he worried a little about his parents. A lovey-dovey vacation celebrating their twentieth anniversary was all well and good, but a year-long vacation in London, England, right by Kusuke? Saiki supposed that his older brother _was_ also his parents’ son and it was natural that they’d want to see him more. However, Kusuke couldn’t be trusted.

His parents had wanted him to come along, but he had refused. An entire year by Kusuke? He’d rather die. Granted, living with his grandfather would probably only be marginally better – though at least he’d be able to tell what his grandfather was thinking. No such luck with Kusuke.

Besides, he desired normalcy. A Japanese transfer student in a British school – and the younger brother of a fairly famous genius to boot – would be hard pressed to find that, unless he used his mind control powers again. He would prefer to avoid that, however.

No, he would live a nice, normal year out in the boonies. He could watch over his parents with his clairvoyance.

“Next station, Yasoinaba. Yasoinaba Station…”

Through the window, Saiki, expressionless as always, observes a station in the distance. Well then, looks like he’s finally arrived.

* * *

Saiki could hear his grandparents long before he saw them. To be more accurate, he could hear his _grandfather_. Very loudly.

 _Oh my, Kusuo’s coming! And he’s staying for an entire_ year _! I’m so excited… it’s been three years, twenty-one weeks, and two days since I last saw him… I’ll finally be able to take him to the amusement park, and the playground, and…_

Just how old do you think I am, Grandfather?

Letting out a short sigh, Saiki pushes the doors of the station open and heads out into the sunlight. He squints.

“Kusuo! Over here, over here!” his grandmother greets him cheerfully.

Saiki sees his grandparents standing together right in front of the station. His grandmother, Kumi Saiki, was wearing a flashy skirt and blouse more suited for a woman half her age – nothing unusual there. Meanwhile, his grandfather Kumagoro _looks_ as grumpy as usual.

Saiki walks towards them, dragging his suitcase behind him.

It’s been a while, Grandmother, Grandfather.

“My my, no need to be so uptight. Grandma’s fine,” his grandmother says, laughing.

“Hmph,” his grandfather scoffs, “Someone his age should show a bit more respect to his elders anyways.”

_Ah, it’s Kusuo! Kusuo’s standing in front of me! He’s so adorable… you can call me whatever you want! Call me Grandpa! Call me Gramps!_

Good grief, he’s as annoying to deal with as usual, Saiki thinks.

“Let’s hurry up and head home,” Kumi suggests, “I’m sure you’re tired from your long journey, Kusuo… oh dear, that suitcase looks heavy. Do you need help?”

I’m fine, it really isn’t that heav –

“- Give it here,” Kumagoro says brusquely, snatching the handle away from Saiki forcefully, “I want to get home quickly, I don’t want to sit around waiting for Kusuo to walk to the car.”

_As if I’d let my cute grandson carry his big suitcase all by himself!_

Kumagoro tries to head to the car, but only barely moves from his spot. His expression looks strained.

Hey, are you alright, Grandfather? I can take the suitcase back, you know?

“I’m… fine,” Kumagoro says through gritted teeth.

“Just what do you have in there?” Kumi exclaims, hand over her mouth.

Not much. Just a few (dozen) cups of coffee jelly. Oh, and the Ultimate Hyper Jelly Maker.

“The Ultimate…” Kumi trails off, furrowing her eyebrows.

Kumagoro has still barely moved. Saiki realizes that they would be stuck here a while if he didn’t do anything. With little other choice, using his telekinesis, he floats his suitcase very slightly off the ground. Kumagoro starts running at a sprint in surprise before slowing down.

“Hmph,” Kumagoro scoffs again, “It wasn’t that heavy after all. Let’s go!”

Good grief, Saiki thinks, expression slightly irritated. Letting out another sigh, he heads to the car after his grandparents.

* * *

“Oh, Kusuo,” Kumi says shortly after they enter the car and start moving, “Would you mind if we stop by the shopping district? I just remembered that we ran out of tonkatsu sauce this morning.”

I don’t care.

“Oh, lovely. Honey, could you take us to the shopping district then?” Kumi asks.

“Couldn’t you ask me these things before I start the car?” grumbles Kumagoro. Despite his whining, he still obediently changes direction to the shopping district.

Shopping district? Are there no department stores in this town?

“There was talk of building a Junes a year or so ago, but it died down after…” Kumi trails off, “Well, after a family moved into that old temple… it was near where they were planning to build the store…”

_That cursed temple… Couldn’t those priests have moved somewhere else? No one’s going to go to pray at a cursed temple anyways…_

Cursed temple, huh. Well, not that he believes in unscientific things like curses anyway. At least curses he didn’t cast.

“We’d all be better off if they left,” Kumagoro says bluntly, a scowl on his face. “There’s been less people visiting Inaba since they came… and some people have been going all the way to Okina City for their shopping. Some stores have even had to close down!”

_Though admittedly there weren’t many people visiting in the first place._

“Honey, don’t say things like that! It’s not their fault,” Kumi chides.

_Not that I disagree, but they have a son Kusuo’s age. I don’t want to poison Kusuo against anybody…_

That won’t be a problem, Grandmother, I prefer being alone, Saiki thinks. I’m already poisoned against anyone who comes up and tries to talk to me.

The conversation dies down. Saiki is left alone with his thoughts, and the thoughts of anyone in a two-hundred metre radius, for a little while until they reach the shopping district.

Kumagoro parks the car at the side of the road near a small grocery store. His grandparents head to the store with a promise to come back soon.

Saiki figures he might as well sleep for a bit. The long journey did tire him out a bit. It’s a bit hot outside, and he can’t use cryokinesis in his sleep, so he opens two of the windows before sprawling himself across the back seats of the car. He closes his eyes.

_… Darkness… thick, thick fog…_

_… He can hear someone shouting something…_

_“Saiki-san!”_

_“Saiki!”_

_… his name…?_

Saiki wakes with a start, breathing heavily. He winced – his head was killing him. What was that? Precognition? But his predictive dreams were usually a bit clearer than that. Plus, he somehow feels like his dream wasn’t going to happen for a while…

He decides to put the issue aside for now. Rubbing his eyes, he blearily sits himself back up.

A baseball shoots past his face onto the car seat next to him. Saiki blinks.

_Oh no, my ball went into a car… I hope nothing broke, Mommy is gonna get mad…_

Concentrating on his immediate vicinity, he hears childish thoughts coming from somewhere to his left. He picks up the baseball – and stops dead for short moment, images of a young boy streaming into his head. Frowning, he looks down at his hand, then sighs.

His right glove is ripped. It probably happened when his grandfather ripped his suitcase handle from him. Saiki quickly restores the glove to yesterday’s state before poking his head out from the car. He sees a green-haired boy standing nearby, looking troubled.

He didn’t need the ball, he might as well return it to the kid. This town was small anyway, he didn’t want to run into trouble because the boy or his parents held a grudge because he didn’t return their ball.

Hey, you.

The boy looks up. Saiki throws the ball towards him – he tries to hold his strength back, but it still ends up shooting straight past the kid. But it doesn’t seem like he cares - he happily waves at Saiki, shouts thanks, and then runs after the ball.

Saiki leans back against the car seat. He suddenly feels a little ill – and very tired. Carsickness, maybe? He restores himself to yesterday’s state and immediately feels better. Carsickness, and the aftereffects of that dream a few minutes ago, probably.

Saiki settles himself in the car. His grandparents would probably take a little bit longer.

He hopes that the rest of his stay in Inaba is about as eventful as the past couple hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naturally, Saiki was swapped with Souji/Yu. They're both protagonists, after all. 
> 
> Dojima and Nanako were soft-swapped with Saiki's grandparents. I say 'soft-swapped' in that they're both playing the role of 'the protagonist's family', but otherwise they have nothing in common. I considered swapping them with say, Yuuta and his mother, but I eventually decided that it would be better to keep things within Saiki's family.
> 
> I want to be able to write everyone with the same or similar issues they had in the original show, to make sure that their Shadows aren't just copy-pastes of the P4 Shadows. So you'll notice that I'll generally be avoiding giving the SKPN characters the exact same backstories as their P4 counterparts.


	2. The Magician (1)

Although his grandparents thought it was a bit sudden to start school the day after he moved to Inaba, Saiki preferred it that way.  The faster he started school, the faster the path to normalcy. Plus, he didn’t want to transfer in on a Tuesday or something. Starting on the first day of term was best.

He saw some idiot run into a trash can on his bike this morning, but ignored him. No good would come from interacting with someone who couldn’t avoid a trash can when moving at a snail’s pace…

He was now standing in front of his classroom’s door, waiting to be called in by the teacher. Luckily, the homeroom teacher, Kyouka Shima, seemed like a nice lady. He didn’t want to have to deal with some bitter old man or something.

“Alright, come in!” Ms. Shima said, finally.

Saiki walks in and stands in front of the class.

_Not interested in dudes… why couldn’t we have gotten a cute city girl instead?_

_Eh, he’s pretty plain-looking. I’ll pass._

_Let’s see, I think I’ll pass by him after school today to make him say ‘offu’ to me in star-struck love…_

_Melon bread or yakisoba bread for lunch… it’s a tough decision to be sure…_

No one was thinking anything out of the ordinary about him… though one person wasn’t even thinking about him…

Well, it didn’t faze him. His ideal ‘normal’ person was ignored by most people, after all. Saiki turns around to write his name on the board before flipping back around and bowing.

My name is Saiki Kusuo. Pleasure to meet you.

_What a drab guy… even his self-introduction is boring…_

Saiki holds back a smile at that stray thought from one of his classmates. Other people might’ve taken that comment as an insult, but it was the highest praise to him.

“Let’s see… Saiki, you can sit next to Yumehara…” Ms. Shima trails off, “Yumehara, put up your hand!”

A plain-looking girl wearing a headband put up her hand, looking uninterested.

Ah, the girl who said that I was ‘plain-looking’, Saiki notes. Coming from her, it doesn’t have much bite.

Looks like the trash can guy is sitting behind me… well, it seems like the only thing on his mind is women, so he probably won’t be much trouble to me.

Saiki makes his way to his seat and sits down. He glances out the window.

It’s foggy… he doesn’t like fog much. It makes it harder to see things with his clairvoyance. And this yellow, thick fog would probably cloud it even worse than usual.

“Alright, we’ll be starting homeroom then!” Ms. Shima says, clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention.

Saiki turned his attention back towards the front of room, ready to listen.

* * *

It seemed like Teruda or Terunuma or whatever her name was wanted to catch him after school, but someone flashy like her interacting to him would be a pain, so he quietly slipped out of class the moment the bell rang.

So it was only after he had left the school that he learned about the murder. From what people were saying (thinking), apparently some businessman had been discovered dead, hanging from the telephone lines.

What a gruesome sight… he had passed by a few people that had seen the body, so he unfortunately knew what it had looked like even without going himself.

But well, he was sure the police would deal with it. It wasn’t his problem.

Thanks to the incident, most people were at home or crowding around the murder site. Saiki decides to find a quiet place and teleport back to his grandparents’ place.

* * *

The other students were annoyingly noisy about the murder the next morning. Saiki hopes that the culprit is caught soon. It wasn’t as if he could do much even if he wanted to – he could only think of three different ways he could help find the culprit. But all of those ways would require him revealing his powers, so he’d pass on that.

He realizes after reaching school that he’d forgotten his pencil case in his room, so he quietly apports it in exchange with his keys.

* * *

Much to his irritation, the clamour didn’t die down even two days after the incident. That evening, Saiki sits on his sofa, watching TV. He idly swaps between channels.

“ – _the most important thing is to add the mayonnai – ”_

_“ – the culprit is you, Takeyama-sa – ”_

_“ – the high school girl who discovered the body of Kiyo – ”_

_“ – morrow’s forecast is rain – ”_

Nothing interesting.

* * *

Three days after the murder and four days since he came to Inaba, Saiki isn’t expecting anything more shocking than the murder to occur.

He’s walking to school with a bored expression, umbrella in hand. He happens to pass by that purple-haired classmate of his, Toritsuka or whatever, who had wisely chosen to walk rather than ride his bike. Their eyes briefly meet, but Saiki swiftly moves forwards before Toritsuka could try to start up a conversation.

_So he’s the psychic the ghosts are raving about…_

… What was that?

It was probably just a coincidence. Maybe Toritsuka had eighth-grade syndrome and was lost in his delusions… he _was_ talking about ghosts, after all…

_The transfer student - should I try to get his help?_

Really, there were probably other transfer students. This guy was probably thinking about one of them. Saiki feels sorry for his fellow transfer student - getting tangled up in some weirdo’s delusions.

_I think his name was Kunio Saiki._

It’s Kusuo.

Saiki stops, glances back, and glares at Toritsuka with a decidedly unamused look. Toritsuka stops and looks at him, blinking.

“D – did I say that out loud?” Toritsuka says, confused. He laughs nervously, “Sorry, Kusuo Saiki, right, sorry about that.”

Come with me for bit. I need to talk to you.

_Oh, damn, does he swing that way? Can’t be helped that I’m popular even with the dudes, but I –_

It’s not that, idiot.  

“Oh, uh.” Toritsuka rubs the back of his head and gives another nervous laugh.

_I could’ve sworn I didn’t say that out loud… I must be pretty tired today._

“Well, can it wait until lunch? School’s gonna start soon,” Toritsuka says, “Plus, y’know, uh…”

He glances back and forth then leans in a little closer, raising a hand next to his mouth.

“… people are listening,” he says in an exaggerated whisper.

As much as he’s loathe to admit it, the purple-haired idiot does have a point. Even without glancing around, he can hear plenty of curious thoughts from the students walking past them.

Besides, from the way Toritsuka is acting, he doubts that Toritsuka’s planning to reveal that Saiki’s a psychic right away. It should be safe to wait a little longer.

Fine. At lunch, then.

“Alright, great!” Toritsuka says brightly, “But anyways see ya, don’t wanna be late.”

He runs off. In the distance, Saiki can hear the first bell ringing.

… He should get going as well.

* * *

Saiki drags Toritsuka up to the roof as soon as the lunch bell rings and locks the door behind them with a quick use of his powers. There, now they had a certain level of privacy.

Onto the main issue.

He forces Toritsuka to a wall and slams a hand next to him. The wall cracks ever-so-slightly. Saiki gives him his coldest look.

How did you find out that I was psychic?

Toritsuka side-eyes Saiki’s hand, and the cracks on the wall, and pales.

“You – how did you know that I knew?” Toritsuka sputters. His eyes widen, “Can you read minds?”

Obviously.

“How is that obvious?!” exclaims Toritsuka. His brows furrow in contemplation, “Wait a second… doesn’t that mean that you could be super popular? You’d always know exactly what to say to girls to make them like you!”

… I don’t really –

“Wait, so what else can you do? Don’t tell me you have x-ray vision too!”

Yes, but more importantly –

“Hell yeah, that’s awesome! So then you can see – ”

Saiki slams his hand against the wall again, a little harder this time. The cracks spread out.

Toritsuka gulps.

“Aha, um, yes, so how I found out… wait, if you can read minds, don’t you already know?”

I heard something about ghosts, but I don’t believe in unscientific things like that. I wasn’t sure if you were serious.

“You’re a psychic and you don’t believe in ghosts because they’re ‘unscientific’?” Toritsuka asks, sounding incredulous, “Well, I’m a psychic medium. I was born into a temple, so I’ve been able to see ghosts for as long as I can remember. Ghosts tend to gather around psychics, so I overheard them gossiping about you yesterday. Saying that you can teleport and lift things up with your mind and stuff…”

I see. So ghosts are real, then.

“Didn’t you just say that you didn’t believe in ghosts because they’re unscientific? You sure change your mind quickly!”

Well, you don’t seem to be lying from what I can read in your mind, and you had to have found out about my powers somehow. Anyways, you better not tell anyone about my powers. I can think of about fifty-two different ways to kill you leaving no traces right here and now, beginning with teleporting you to an active volcano.

_He’s joking, right?_

Saiki intensifies his stare.

“Not joking! I see, not joking!” Toritsuka says, a little hysterical, “I promise I won’t tell anyone anything – so could you step back a little?”

Seeing that Toritsuka seems sincere, Saiki gives him a bit of space. Toritsuka lets out a little sigh of relief.

“Well anyways, that’s not important right now – what I really want to know is…”

Toritsuka suddenly gets down on his knees. Saiki raises an eyebrow.

“Master, please teach me how to use your psychic powers!” begs Toritsuka, “I know you can read my mind, so I won’t lie – I want to see through clothing and able to sneak into the girls’ changing rooms and…”

Wow, you’re total scum.

“You’re so blunt, Master…”

Saiki gazes at Toritsuka coldly again.

Don’t call me Master.

“… Eep. Understood, Mas – Saiki-san!”

Saiki shakes his head in exasperation then turns away from Toritsuka.

I’ll be going then. Keep quiet about my powers.

“Ah, wait! Saiki-san, I wanted to ask you something!” Toritsuka exclaims suddenly, “I got distracted when you told me you could see through clothes and stuff… eh heh…”

Saiki turns back.

What is it?

“Help me catch the guy who murdered Kiyoi Mera!”

No.

“That was quick! You didn’t even consider it!” Toritsuka sputters.

I want to live a normal life as a normal high school boy. Normal people don’t go running after murderers.

“A normal life? But you have so many different powers…” Toritsuka mutters, looking miffed, “What a waste…”

Is that a problem?

“Ah, no…” says Toritsuka hurriedly.

I know that you just want to catch the murderer so you’ll become popular with the girls, anyway.

Toritsuka looks taken aback. Saiki isn’t sure why, considering that he should’ve been more than aware that Saiki was able to read his mind.

“Okay, fine, so I do wanna get popular,” Toritsuka admits, “But that’s not the only reason why I want to catch the murderer! I already know who it is – the ghosts saw the whole thing go down. But I don’t have any proof!”

I see. Well, have fun playing detective.

Saiki turns back around to head to the door.

“I need your help, Saiki-san!” Toritsuka says desperately, “The murderer is a psychic!”

… What?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I struggled with deciding who to swap Yosuke with. 'First male friend' and 'best male friend' of the protagonist would probably go to Nendou or Kaidou, but I felt both of them didn't really fit well in Yosuke's spot. 
> 
> I eventually decided on Toritsuka for two main reasons - one, they're both a bit idiotic when it comes to girls, and two, Toritsuka is one of the few people who know about Saiki's powers in the show. Thus, it would make sense for him to similarly discover Saiki's powers in this story, giving me the convenience of having a character who knows the secret while also allowing the two of them to become a bit closer à la Souji and Yosuke. 
> 
> Just a wee bit closer, though. Saiki is still Saiki, after all.


	3. The Star

Saiki sighs, arms crossed. He leans back against the roof’s chain-link fence and looks at Toritsuka skeptically.

So, you’re telling me that ghosts told you that they saw a man in a suit push Kiyoi Mera into a television… and the television swallowed him up whole?

“Yes,” Toritsuka says, sounding a little irritated, “That’s what I just said.”

It’s a bit hard to believe…

“Why is a psychic such a skeptic?!” exclaims Toritsuka.

Well, I know you’re telling the truth. But can you say the same for the ghosts? They might be just messing around with you. You do seem like the type to get tricked easily… especially by women.

“You don’t have to be so rude about it!”

And yet you don’t deny it.

“Anyways,” Toritsuka continues, ignoring Saiki’s last statement, “Ghosts are pure and innocent! They’re all very nice. They would never do something as terrible as lying or playing pranks, especially not about a murder! They’re completely harmless.”

Completely harmless? So they can’t attack humans or anything?

“No, of course not. They can’t touch humans or even objects,” says Toritsuka firmly, “Well, aside from objects that they had a strong connection with when they were alive, but that’s pretty rare. So how could they attack people?”

So what you’re saying is that you’re even more useless than I had initially thought.

“Yes – wait, that’s – ” Toritsuka sighs, “I guess I can’t deny that it’s a pretty useless power. It’s tough to make money off of it…”

… I see. That’s how you measure the usefulness of your power.

Saiki looks at Toritsuka coolly.

“Stop looking at me like that, Saiki-san!” whines Toritsuka. He sighs again, “Look, could you just please come with me to the crime scene tonight? I’m begging you! I went there yesterday but I couldn’t make the television do anything – maybe you’ll be able to make something happen.”

I refuse. I feel like you’ll cause me a lot of problems if I spend time with you.

“Won’t it be more problematic for you if the police aren’t able to catch the murderer?” points out Toritsuka, irritatingly logical, “I mean, what if the murderer strikes again?”

It’s Saiki’s turn to let out a sigh.

Fine. This evening.

“Woo hoo, awesome!” Toritsuka says cheerily, punching the air, “We can meet up by the gas station in the shopping district after dinner – maybe seven?”

_With Saiki-san’s help, we’ll catch the murderer. Then I’ll get famous in the area, and be super popular with the girls in class… heh heh…_

I don’t really want to help this guy, Saiki thinks.

* * *

 

That evening, Saiki reluctantly follows Toritsuka to the Mugami Inn, where the crime had apparently taken place. Supposedly the inn had a large television in its lobby. According to Toritsuka, the murderer was still staying in the inn – from what ghosts had told him, the man apparently seemed pretty shaken up by what had happened. Still, there was no guarantee he would stay much longer – it would be best to work fast.

Toritsuka stops several paces from the inn’s entrance.

What’s the matter?

“Uh, so I may have gotten banned from the inn yesterday,” says Toritsuka, cheeks slightly red. He scratches his cheek.

Ah, because you were suspiciously poking around the television in the lobby, I assume.

“Um… yeah, that’s it,” Toritsuka says, letting out a nervous laugh.

_Actually, it was because I hit on some ladies staying at the inn and they complained…_

You realize I can tell when you’re lying, right?

“Eep.”

Saiki could probably investigate by himself, but if there were ghosts around that had useful information, he unfortunately needed Toritsuka. He had never needed someone else for their psychic powers before… granted, he had never met another psychic until Toritsuka, but as embarrassingly arrogant as it was, he had always assumed that he had every psychic power that existed. It was why he had been so sure there was no such thing as ghosts.

It felt rather annoying to have to rely on someone, especially someone like Toritsuka. In the future, he should avoid situations like this to the best of his ability.

Saiki turns towards Toritsuka.

It can’t be helped. I’ll use my hypnosis to make you look like a different person, just don’t do anything stupid and get yourself banned again.

“Woah, you can do something like that too?” Toritsuka says in awe, “You can really do anything. Except see ghosts I guess, heh.”

Saiki sends Toritsuka a chilling glare. Toritsuka gulps in response and laughs nervously again.

“At this time, most of the staff is busy with making dinner and cleaning it up, and most customers are having dinner or just in their rooms,” Toritsuka explains, “So as long as we get past the receptionist, the lobby should be pretty empty.”

Hm. In that case, I’ll turn myself invisible, and make you look like a generic customer. Just walk in confidently and the receptionist probably won’t ask questions.

“Seriously, can you do anything?!”

You won’t be able to see me when I’m invisible, but you’ll be able to hear me. I’ll be following right behind. Don’t try to touch me – it’ll cancel my invisibility.

“Got it,” Toritsuka says, nodding.

Saiki quickly uses his hypnosis to disguise Toritsuka and then turns himself invisible.

Alright, let’s go. I’ve already disguised you.

“Aren’t you going to turn invisible first?” Toritsuka says, looking confused. He’s still looking straight at Saiki.

That’s strange. He definitely activated his invisibility – he can’t see his hands, at least. Ah – it’s probably a side effect of Toritsuka being able to see ghosts. Perhaps Toritsuka’s precise power is “seeing things that can’t be seen” rather than “seeing spirits”.

I’m already invisible. You must be able to see me because you can see ghosts.

“Huh. That’s cool,” Toritsuka says, “Okay, let’s go.”

As Saiki had predicted, the receptionist paid Toritsuka no mind as he walked in. They headed straight to the lobby’s television. Thankfully, the place was empty, although a customer occasionally walked past, paying them no mind.

Since he couldn’t use most of his other abilities when invisible, he cancels his invisibility once they reach the television. Saiki examines it.

“Saiki-san, what do you think?”

Using his x-ray vision, he looks at the inside of the television. Nothing unusual – just a normal flat screen television. He then knocks his hand against the surface of the screen a few times. Nothing.

It seems like a regular television to me. Let’s try to recreate the murder scene then. Toritsuka, where was the victim standing? I’ll try pushing you in.

“Wait – wait wait,” Toritsuka sputters, “Don’t push me in! What if it’s triggered by someone being pushed into the TV and I get killed?”

It won’t be much of a loss.

“You’re terrible! Why can’t I be the one to push you in?”

You’re the one who asked me for help.

“Well, that’s true, but – ” Toritsuka cuts himself off, “Saiki-san! The TV!”

Saiki’s eyes widen a notch. The television, which had been pitch black a moment ago, suddenly had a strange black and white swirling pattern on it.

“Did you do something?” Toritsuka asks.

Saiki shakes his head. He leans in to examine the television closer. The inside of the TV still looks the same – maybe they had accidentally turned it on? Saiki tries clicking the power button a few times. Nope, definitely still off.

“This is a bit creepy, Saiki-san…” says Toritsuka nervously, “Do you think we should stand back?”

Almost as if he had predicted what would happen next, that moment, thick arms reach out from the TV and – faster than Saiki could react – drag them both into the television.

* * *

Toritsuka screams the whole way down. Saiki admits to himself that he’s rather shocked as well, though he doesn’t let it out like Toritsuka. He looks around with wide eyes, white and black colours streaming past them.

Not too long after they began falling, they begin to slow down. Saiki can see ground drawing near. He floats himself softly down but lets Toritsuka flop down in a heap – they were moving slowly enough at that point that Toritsuka would be fine.

 Saiki glances about with sharp eyes. He frowns slightly. The fog is so thick in here that he can’t see a thing. What he does see fills him with unease. Where were they? Were those outlines of bodies on the ground?

Toritsuka groans, standing himself up. He glances back and forth.

“Where – ” he begins, voice panicked.

“- Hey, you killers! I’ve caught you now!”

A voice comes from behind them, cutting Toritsuka off. Saiki flips around, eyes wide. There was someone behind them? He hadn’t heard their thoughts at all!

Behind them was either a monster or a rather ugly human. From the complete lack of thoughts from the thing, Saiki was going to go with monster. It had a horrible blond Mohawk and a strange bald line circling its head. Its chin was ridiculously cleft and its arms were currently crossed.

“What do you mean, killers?!” Toritsuka demands, still sounding frantic, “We haven’t killed anyone!”

“Heh, you can’t hide anything from me,” the monster-ugly-human-thing says smugly, “I overheard you talking about pushing people in! So I dragged you in before you could push someone else in!”

“You’ve got it all wrong! We’re investigating the murder!” cries Toritsuka. He looks around nervously, “How could you drag us into… wherever this is?”

“Investigating?” the thing cocks his head to the side, face blank.

Yes, we were looking for evidence implicating the true murderer.

“Implicating?” the thing cocks his head to the other side.

Good grief, this thing is an idiot.

“We’re uh, looking for the killer too,” Toritsuka says slowly.

It wasn’t exactly true, since they already knew who the killer was, but understanding lights the thing’s face at Toritsuka’s words.

“Oh, why didn’t you just say that in the first place!” it says, sounding annoyed.

Toritsuka looks upwards, unamused. Saiki just sighs.

Hey, you. What are you?

“Me? I don’t know,” it responds, stupidly cheerily for something that doesn’t know what it is.

… What’s your name, then?

“Don’t have one,” it responds, just as cheerily.

Saiki holds back a groan.

“Wow, you’re a pain to deal with,” Toritsuka says, “Hm… a pain… if you don’t have a name, how about we call you ‘Mendou’?”

That’s a bit mean, Toritsuka. Let’s swap the first _hiragana_ character with the one a column to its left and call him ‘Hendou’.

“I don’t think that’s much better, Saiki-san,” Toritsuka says, “With his face, it makes me think that he’s some kind of calamity bringing violent change or something.”

Alright, one more column to the left then – ‘Nendou’.

“I guess that kind of sounds like a name,” Toritsuka admits.

“You guys…”

Saiki and Toritsuka turn back towards the thing. Saiki double-takes. Were those… tears coming out of the thing’s eyes? It runs towards the two of them and embraces them.

Wait, no, get off me. 

Saiki struggles in its grip.

“You gave me a name!” it blubbers, “You’re nice people after all! Nendou is a great name!”

… Is it really? It came from Toritsuka calling you a pain, you know?

“Don’t point that out when he’s squeezing us, Saiki-san!” Toritsuka hisses.

“We’re friends now! Pals!” the newly-dubbed Nendou says firmly, finally letting the two of them go, “You said you were looking for the killer too? I can take you to where the guy who got kicked in died! If that’ll help…”

That would be a great help.

“More importantly, how do we get out?!” cries Toritsuka.

Hey, you were the one who asked me to help you investigate…

“Get out? Oh, that’s easy,” Nendou says, laughing obnoxiously. He stomps his feet a couple times. A few televisions fall down in a stack in front of him.

“Woah,” Toritsuka says, eyes wide.

“If you wanna leave, you can just go through these TVs,” Nendou says, slapping the side of the stack, “But if you leave, you can’t get back in unless someone on this side brings you in!”

Wait, if that’s the case, how could the killer have pushed the victim inside?

“Uh… I don’t know!”

Good grief, how useless.

“Saiki-san… let’s go, this place creeps me out,” Toritsuka whines, “There’s no ghosts anywhere…”

Why are you getting creeped out by there being no ghosts? Aren’t people usually creeped out by the opposite?

“You don’t understand – in most places, there’s at least two or three ghosts floating around,” explains Toritsuka, “But here, there’s not even one. It’s super creepy.”

Don’t be so selfish when you dragged me into this whole mess. We’re going to go investigate the murder scene, then we can leave.

“Saiki-san,” Toritsuka whines again.

Saiki ignores Toritsuka.

Nendou, can you take us to the place where the victim died?

“Sure thing! But be careful of Shadows! They’re all over the place nowadays…” Nendou says.

Shadows? What do you mean by shadows?

“You don’t know what Shadows are?” Nendou laughs, “Man, are you stupid or what?”

Saiki twitches. He gives Nendou a strained smile.

I assume you don’t mean shade. What do you mean by ‘shadows’?

“Huh? No, Shadows are monsters!” explains Nendou.

“So are you a Shadow then?” Toritsuka asks with zero tact.

“I’m not a Shadow!” snaps Nendou angrily. His face suddenly looks very scary – enough to make even Saiki gulp.

“R – right, got it,” Toritsuka stutters, face pale.

Anyways, can we go?

“Sure!” Nendou says brightly, “Oh, before we go, I should give you guys some glasses… as a symbol of our friendship…”

“What? I don’t need glasses,” says Toritsuka.

I have my own glasses already.

“Oh, I see… you don’t need my glasses,” Nendou says, looking sad, “I guess we did just meet… but I was pretty proud of them! I made them all by myself! And they can see through the fog an’ everything!”

What? Give them here.

“I’ll take them too!”

“You guys changed your mind? I’m so glad!” exclaims Nendou happily. He hands them over.

Saiki quickly swaps his normal pair for the pair Nendou had given him. Just as Nendou had promised, they let him see through the fog.

Quite useful… but the design left a little something to be desired. One side was slightly bigger than the other, and the frame was crooked… but Saiki could deal with that much if it meant being able to see. Saiki supposed it was because they were handmade by Nendou.

He had some questions, like why Nendou had made these glasses in the first place, but they could wait. For now, he wanted to hurry up and head to the crime scene so they could leave this (admittedly creepy) place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nendou is one of the first 'friends' Saiki makes, so it didn't really feel right to keep him until later in story as say, Kanji or something. So, Teddie it was. It was either going to be Kaidou or Nendou, and Kaidou's position was decided after I picked Kuboyasu's position.
> 
> Now, Teddie is a bit more innocent than Nendou, but they can both be stupid (though Teddie more from ignorance than anything) and they're both pretty straightforward people. Also, I've decided that Saiki can't read Shadows' thoughts - my reasoning being that they're really just people's thoughts, so it could make sense for Saiki to be unable to read the thoughts of thoughts - which means that Nendou can be unreadable by Saiki without the whole 'he's just really, really, stupid' thing. C'mon, Nendou has to think sometime.
> 
> Note about the whole Mendou - Hendou - Nendou thing:
> 
> 'Mendou' means 'troublesome' (or 'a pain' as I used it) in Japanese. The first character of 'mendou' when written in hiragana is 'me'. Hiragana is written in sets of (usually) five characters in columns. Thus the character directly to the left of 'me' is 'he', and directly to the left of 'he' is 'ne'. 'Hendou' just means 'change' or 'fluctuation'.
> 
> Next chapter - the first Shadow :)


	4. The Magician (2)

Toritsuka and Saiki follow Nendou for a short while. Soon, the surroundings begin to look familiar.

“This is a residential district near our school, isn’t it?” Toritsuka comments, “I wonder if our entire world is mirrored here…”

Mirrored without the people.

“Yeah…”

Nendou stops in front of a slightly rundown house. He points up to it and looks back at Toritsuka and Saiki with a smile.

“Here it is! I would’ve tried to help the guy but I didn’t realize someone had come in until it was too late…” Nendou says, trailing off at the end. He looks downcast.

“Well, we’re here to avenge him now,” Toritsuka says firmly. He walks up to the door, suddenly all determined for whatever reason, “Let’s go in, Saiki-san!”

Don’t tell me what to do.

The three of them walk into the house. The inside was as rundown as the outside – the paint was slightly peeling, the wooden floors were scuffed, and the lighting seemed strangely purple.

“Excuse us,” Nendou says loudly before stepping in completely.

Saiki couldn’t sense anyone but Toritsuka in the area, but if there were others like Nendou, his telepathy wouldn’t be of any help. Did normal people always live with this terror of not knowing who was around them?

They walk around the first floor of the house, but nothing particularly suspicious pops out. With nothing more to see on the first floor, they head to the staircase. The staircase creaks, but holds their weight well enough.

At the top of the staircase is a door. Steeling himself – because as loath as he was to admit it, the creepy atmosphere was slightly getting to him - Saiki pushes it open and squints. The room it leads to is much brighter than anywhere on the first floor. But his eyes soon adjust, allowing him to see… Toritsuka?

He whips his head around. Nope, Toritsuka is still standing below him on the staircase. He turns back forward. But… someone that looks like Toritsuka is also standing in the room?

“Hey, what’s taking you so long to go in?” Toritsuka asks, frowning.

Saiki doesn’t like this, but he didn’t come this far to turn back. Since he can’t detect any thoughts from the Toritsuka-clone, Saiki assumes that he’s the same kind of weird being as Nendou. Sighing, he steps into the room, Toritsuka and Nendou following soon behind.

“Wh –what – who are you?!” Toritsuka sputters on spotting his clone.

No… not his clone. Now that Saiki’s a little closer, he notices that the clone’s eyes are yellow. And that face… Toritsuka may be annoying, but that maliciously evil expression just looks wrong on him.

“It’s a Shadow!” says Nendou, “A pretty strong one, too… heh, this is exciting!”

So Shadows are mimics, then?

“Hey, you! Stop using my face!” Toritsuka says angrily, pointing at the Shadow.

The Shadow scoffs.

“I’m not ‘using’ your face,” it says, rolling its eyes, “This _is_ my face. I am a Shadow, the true self. I am your Shadow – and I know everything about you.”

“That’s just a bluff,” Toritsuka says, sounding a bit unsure.

“Is it?” says the Shadow, smirking as he looked down at Toritsuka, “’I want to be popular, I want to have a girlfriend, I want to do perverted things…’ You make such a fuss about everything, but really, you don’t care as much as you pretend to and aren’t as stupid as a pervert as you seem to be.”

“What!? That’s a lie, I’m an unapologetic pervert!” Toritsuka cries.

Is that really what you should be complaining about?

Saiki briefly considers throwing the Shadow into a wall or something. But what the Shadow is saying seems a bit interesting, so he decides to wait a little bit longer. Besides, it wasn’t as if the Shadow was particularly bothering him yet.

“Oh, sure, you’re an unabashed pervert. I know that _all_ too well. But at the same time, you understand perfectly well that doing things like obnoxiously hitting on people won’t make you popular, and trying to peep on people just creeps them out. But… at least then… at least then they’ll think you’re a _normal_ type of creep, right?”

“…What?”

“They won’t throw rocks at you for being the ‘haunted temple kid’ or call you crazy for talking with ghosts. No, if you talk with a ghost and someone sees it, they’ll forget about it soon enough when you start obnoxiously perving on someone. You just get classified in their head as ‘pervert’. Else, you can just play up the whole ‘I see ghosts’ thing in front of girls. That way, everyone just thinks you’re making everything up to get a girlfriend who’s interested in the occult or something.”

“That’s not true, I…”

“What’s not true? You can see what others can’t, but you don’t want to see the truth? The truth is, you’re scared. You want to be special, and in a way, you are, but you want to be special in a way that makes everyone love you. And all seeing ghosts does is make people look at you with cold eyes.”

“No, but…”

“Even the priests. Even your damn _father_. Aren’t they supposed to be used to the supernatural? They’re fucking Buddhist priests! Oh sure, they’re better than normal people – at least they believe you when you say you can see ghosts. But you can see it in their eyes – they hate that a boy so close with the dead lives with them, eats with them. It would’ve been better if you had never told them at all. Or maybe if you had never been born at all.”

“Stop lying!” Toritsuka hisses, eyes flashing, “I don’t think that about Dad or the other priests! Sure, they get pissed at me sometimes, but that’s because I’m slacki – I mean, because they’re all uptight about rules and stuff.”

Toritsuka takes a step forward towards his Shadow, clenching his fists.

“You’re not me,” spits Toritsuka.

For a moment, there was nothing.

Then a wide smile spreads across the Shadow’s face. Cackling laughter filled the room.

“That’s right! I’m not you!” the Shadow laughs, “I’m _me_ now!”

The Shadow sheds its guise as Toritsuka, morphing into something much stranger – and larger. It looked a lot like a large Buddhist statue, though the statue’s normally refined appearance was ruined by the black headband it wore around its forehead and its bright red eyes. Not to mention, of course, the bubbling mass of… some strange violet goop that made up its bottom half, though thankfully the goop didn’t seem to be leaking.

The Shadow’s red eyes flash, its stone face slowly breaking out into a malicious grin.

As yellow slips of paper float up from a strange circle that appeared beneath them, Saiki suddenly gets the feeling that he should’ve probably stepped in earlier. He grabs Toritsuka and Nendou by the scruff of their necks and teleports them across the room. He watches the circle dissipate harmlessly from a safe distance.

“Oh man, this is pretty bad!” Nendou says, letting out a rather cheerful laugh markedly contrast to his words, “That Shadow’s letting out some unbelievable power!”

“Why didn’t you teleport us out of this place, Saiki-san?!” Toritsuka cries in terror, making to grab Saiki’s shoulders in order to shake them. Saiki nimbly steps out of his way.

Saiki wasn’t entirely sure if his teleportation would work as expected in this weird dimension, but he had figured that teleporting a short distance within eyesight would be safe enough. He also may have slightly panicked at the sight of the bizarre monster in front of them.

Not that he had any reason to tell Toritsuka that.

Turning back towards the Shadow, he sees that it seems to be gearing up for another attack. That wouldn’t be good.

He lifts up his hand towards the Shadow and _pushes._

The Shadow doesn’t even twitch. Saiki grits his teeth and tries harder, but to no avail. Perhaps that stone appearance wasn’t for nothing.

Before Saiki could make his next attack, the Shadow bursts up into the air a few metres before slamming down with incredible force. All three of them are knocked back by the attack. Saiki manages to balance himself just in time with his flight, but the other two weren’t so lucky. Glancing back, he sees Nendou jumping back up, looking healthy enough. But Toritsuka is still collapsed by the wall, groaning in pain.

Well, Toritsuka wasn’t going to be any help either way, but perhaps Nendou has some secret depths to him –

“You stupid statue! Who do you think you are, attacking my friends?!” Nendou yells out, running up to the Shadow and pounding uselessly at the gelatinous mass at the statue’s base.

–  never mind.

If telekinesis was no use, perhaps fire would work better. Saiki raises his hand again towards the statue, this time to use his pyrokinesis. A gigantic fireball appears in midair and shoots towards the Shadow – but just when Saiki thinks it’s going to hit, a glass-like wall appears in front of it, reflecting it back towards him. He barely manages to dodge it using his flight.

Good grief. Something spawned from _Toritsuka_ had no business being so strong. Well, if it was strong against fire, perhaps ice was its weakness? Still floating in the air, he generates a ball of ice above the statue, to avoid it reflecting towards him just in case. With a grim face, he lets it drop.

Saiki’s lips twitch up into a small smile at the inhuman scream the Shadow lets out on contact with the ice. So it was weak against ice, then – that was easy enough to deal with. With his cryokinesis, it’s an easy enough task to encase the statue in ice. Down below, Nendou yelps and jumps back from the suddenly frozen gloop.

The Shadow vibrates, trying to escape from its frozen cage, but Saiki doesn’t let it, re-generating the ice the moment a crack appears. A bead of sweat drips down his forehead – it’s been a while since he’s had to strain himself this much.

Finally, after what seems like too long, the statue stops struggling and bursts into black flecks. Cautiously, Saiki lets the ice melt away and flies back down to the ground.

Once the ice near the ground disappears, he sees the Shadow is back in its original form, as Toritsuka. It seems rather meek now, however.

Still, no need to take risks. Saiki raises a hand towards the Shadow, prepared to launch his cryokinesis again.

“W - wait!” Toritsuka calls out from behind him.

Saiki looks back. Toritsuka is limping towards his Shadow and Saiki, stopping every few steps to wince and rub at his head.

Why should I wait?

“That thing – Nendou, that thing’s… really from me, right?” Toritsuka demands once he’s made his way to the middle of the room.

“Uh, I dunno,” Nendou says blankly.

Toritsuka gives Nendou an exasperated look before continuing.

“Look, it doesn’t matter,” he says, “It’s just… it said a lot of things that were wrong – ”

A strange black substance starts floating up from the Shadow, looking dangerous.

“ – o-or maybe not so wrong after all,” Toritsuka quickly backtracks, “But you know, during the fight, I realized – it’s not so different from ghosts, maybe.”

Excuse me?

“Ghosts… they’re really good, y’know. And pure. But some ghosts, since none of them remember being human anymore, sometimes, they do things that might seem mean because they don’t have the context to realize it’s not nice,” Toritsuka explains, “So I think… I think this ‘Shadow’ was just trying to help me out in its own way, like the ghosts. Trying to make me see what I didn’t want to see for my own good.”

Just what in the world made you come to _that_ conclusion?

“I dunno… Shadows are scary,” Nendou says doubtfully.

“I know it sounds stupid, but…” Toritsuka sighs. He walks over to his Shadow and places a hand on its shoulder, “I think this guy… really meant what he said. I’m willing to accept that, for him. And I guess for me. Because…”

Toritsuka grins at his Shadow, who’s looking surprised.

“… You’re me, and I’m you, right?”’

The Shadow smiles faintly before bursting into glittering flecks of crystal that swirled upwards, a strange figure appearing midair through the dust.

It resembled the Shadow’s monstrous form from earlier, but there were some notable differences. Though it was still clearly a Buddhist statue – a _Jizou_ statue, Saiki noted – its black headband from earlier was now a purple one and it wore red prayer beads around its neck. Its bottom half now split apart into two stone legs, rather than into a black mass like before.

It also dissipated into a glittering mist after a moment, leaving behind a strange card that floated into Toritsuka’s hand before melting away.

What is that?

“I…” Toritsuka starts, frowning, “P… persona?”

What?

“Huh?” Nendou says in confusion.

“I don’t know,” Toritsuka says, sounding just as confused, “I just… I just know that he’s my Persona. His name is Jizou.”

What does that mean? Is it a spirit medium thing?

“I’m not sure, it just popped up in my head,” Toritsuka admitted, “And it’s not like I know any other spirit mediums… and none of the ghosts I know ever mentioned anything like this. I can ask around, though. You can tell I’m telling the truth, right, Saiki?”

It’s true, Toritsuka does believe everything he’s saying. Saiki shrugs. It was probably a spirit medium thing.

“Hm… I feel like I should know this…” Nendou says, gazing upwards. He looks back down towards Saiki and Toritsuka and grins, “Eh, it’s probably not important!”

No, I think information about a monster that just attacked us is pretty important.

“I agree with Saiki-san…” Toritsuka says, “But I don’t think Jizou is a bad guy.”

Right… let’s just get out of here. We know what probably happened to Mera – he was obviously attacked by a Shadow, maybe yours.

“But then what happened to his body afterwards? Shouldn’t it had stayed here then, not ended up draped over the telephone lines?” Toritsuka shot back, eyes flashing.

Fine, you can go investigate more some other time – but I’m done with this farce, I’ve helped you more than enough. And I think you’re done for today too.

Toritsuka opens his mouth as if to argue, but thinks better of it.

_Ugh, I ache all over… I don’t want to give up when we’ve barely learned anything, but I guess Saiki-san has a point._

“Okay, let’s get back home,” Toritsuka says reluctantly, “Hey, Nendou, if we leave, will you bring us back in again if you spot us near the TV?”

Don’t lump me in with you, there’s no way I’m coming back to a place like this.

“Of course! You guys are leaving already? Come back soon, okay?” Nendou says brightly, throwing his arms around their shoulders – or at least trying to. Saiki dodges out of his way.

“Definitely!” Toritsuka says.

_After all, if I solve the mystery, then I’ll basically be a real detective – aren’t all girls into that nowadays?_

Good grief. Anyways, Nendou, take us back to the exit already.

“Sure thing!”

Thankfully, they didn’t run into any more strange monsters on the way back to the exit. When Saiki finally got home, he skillfully dodged his grandparents’ worried questions – and by that, he meant ignoring them – and threw himself into bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may be using this fic as an excuse to explain some of the characters' behavior when the actual answer is just "because it's funny". Shh.


End file.
